Webhooks Overview

What are webhooks?

Webhooks are a way to get notified when something happens. Technically, an HTTP POST request is sent when certain things happen. Webhooks can be depicted as "reverse APIs": while you make requests to an API to pull the information you need, a webhook push information directly to your app (an URL endpoint) upon an event occurrence.

What are webhooks useful for?

Webhooks make it easier to create systems that react to evolving situations: instead of having to check if something happens every X minutes (check if I have new SMS on this number), each new event (a new SMS) is pushed to the app.

Therefore, webhooks are both more practical and less resource-hungry that methods they replace. Nevertheless, webhooks are bit harder to implement than a simple API request: you'll need to set up an URL endpoint on your side to be able to use them.

What can webhooks do at CALLR?

A list of all the events that can be tied to a webhooks as well as information regarding their implementation is available in the doc webhook reference.

How to easily get started with webhooks?

Webhooks require a public URL address to receive HTTP requests and reply to them. Various solutions are available to make it easier for testing purposes. You can create a secure public URL to a local webserver on your machine using ngrok: start testing and deal with webhooks the easy way.